Anderson - who already held the status of England's all-time leading wicket taker - became the first ever fast bowler in history to reach 600 scalps on the final day of the last Test of the summer.
Earlier in the season, Broad - on the last day of the third Test against the West Indies - became only the seventh bowler to take 500 wickets in Test cricket by dismissing Kraigg Brathwaite.
Coincidentally, Anderson had also reached the milestone of 500 wickets against Braithwaite in 2017.
For the most part, though, this summer has been an exercise in frustration with all six Test matches affected by the weather at some point.
Renowned slow series starters England were at it again in the first Test against the West Indies, falling to 87-5 on their way to 204 all out.
West Indies replied with a score of 318, despite Ben Stokes's 4-49 before England gave themselves some hope by compiling 313 in the second innings.
Chasing 200 exactly, the men from the Caribbean struggled against the pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, and were reduced to 100-4 with opener John Campbell also going off injured.
However, Jermaine Blackwood hit an assured 95 and the Windies eased to their target with four wickets to spare for a 1-0 lead.
The result meant England had lost the opening Test in each of their previous five series - and, with only two more matches to be played in this particular series, Joe Root's men were already up against it.
In the second Test, the hosts responded well - and opener Dom Sibley (120) and Stokes (176) both hit centuries to set up a declaration on 469-9.
West Indies looked solid enough in reply at 242-4 - but Broad came up with one of those spells seen so many times before to take the wickets of Blackwood, Shane Dowrich, and Shamarh Brooks.
Young spinner Dom Bess then joined in and suddenly the Windies were all out for 287.
To their credit, the tourists had beaten the follow-on target - but, with a big lead, England had another route to victory: quick runs and 10 wickets.
In pursuit of the first of those aims, England promoted World Cup winners Jos Buttler and Stokes - however, it did not exactly go to plan.
Buttler was out for a duck and number three Zak Crawley (11) followed shortly afterwards, both being undone by Kemar Roach.
Stokes was still there though - and, dominating the scoring in partnerships with Root and Ollie Pope, the Durham all-rounder made 78 not out as England went at more than six-per-over to declare on 129-3.
For the first time in the series, England had the West Indies right where they wanted them - and the tourists quickly collapsed to 37-4.
A recovery of sorts was staged by Blackwood and Brooks - but, from the last ball before tea, the former was caught behind off Stokes.
Dowrich was then out in the first full over following the interval - and, once Sam Curran trapped Brooks lbw, even the Windies' hopes of a draw were up in smoke.
The third Test performance was probably the most dominant by England this summer, despite the loss of a whole day of play for the second match in a row.
Pope made 91, Buttler 67 and Broad (62) even returned to form with the bat as England made a competitive 369 to start off the decider.
That proved more than enough as Broad, in inspired form, took 6-31 to bowl the West Indies out for just 198.
Again, the visitors had at made it past the follow on target - but, in contrast to the need for speed in the second Test, there was still enough time for England to strangle the life out of their opponents with slow and steady accumulation.
Rory Burns made 90 off 163 balls and Sibley 56 off 132 as England produced their first century opening stand in Tests since a match against India in December 2016.
The scoring rate increased when Root replaced Sibley, who was lbw to Jason Holder, and England declared on 226-2 on the fall of Burns's wicket.
Holder's men required 399 to win - but, with the score on 10-2 at the end of the third day, they never looked like pulling it off.
The fourth day was a washout but the Windies were beaten before tea on the fifth, bowled out for 129 as Chris Woakes took 5-50 and Broad collected match figures of 10-67.
England had regained the Wisden Trophy for one last time with the honour now retired and replaced by the Richards-Botham Trophy, named after Sir Viv Richards and Sir Ian Botham.
For the record, the West Indies won 14 of the 28 series and 48 of the 120 Tests in the Wisden Trophy. England won 10 series and 36 Tests while four series and 36 Tests were drawn.
Nevertheless, the result this summer means the West Indies have still not won a Test series in England since 1988.
Pakistan were next up and arrived defending a 10-year unbeaten record against England.
Effectively, though, their chance of achieving this came and went within the four days of the first Test, such was the weather towards the end of the series.
Yet it could have very easily been Pakistan who walked away from the campaign with a 1-0 win, considering they dominated for long periods of the opening match.
Shan Masood made 156 to steer the Pakistanis to 326 in the first innings of the series - and England, once again, started badly with the bat.
Root's men were reduced to 12-3 and had middle and lower order players such as Pope (62), Buttler (38), and Broad (29 not out) to thank for dragging the side to a total of 219.
That was still in excess off 100 runs short of Pakistan - but it was almost then at that point as if the tourists could not believe the position which they were in, and they failed badly to push on in their second innings.
By the close of day three, Pakistan were 137-8 - and, while that was still a seemingly handy lead of 244, England sensed they had found their way back into the game.
Within three overs of the start of day four, the match had moved into its final chapter with Pakistan dismissed for 169, a lead of 276.
Time, therefore, was not an issue for England - but, unfortunately, batting under pressure appeared to be, and - at 117-5 - the target suddenly looked a long way off.
Enter Buttler (75) and Chris Woakes, with the latter making 84 not out in a sixth-wicket partnership of 139 to put England on the brink.
Still, there threatened to be a final twist when Yasir Shah trapped both Buttler and Broad lbw in quick succession.
But player of the match Woakes, whose many fine contributions with the ball is so often overshadowed by Anderson and Broad - looked assured with the bat and he guided England safely home.
Without any crowd in attendance, it was not quite the same as that chase at Headingley last year - but the same sort of relief was palpable.
It is important, though, that Root's side are aware that successful chases after the concession of a big deficit will always be special, simply because they are uncommon. Certainly, they should not be relied upon too regularly.
Nevertheless, the chase demonstrated an encouraging determination not to give in - and ended up effectively being enough to win the series.
After all, the second Test became a collosal farce and, altogether, an absolute waste of time.
True, the weather made it unlikely there was ever going to be a result - but the umpires' overly-cautious bad light reading on the first day caused problems for them for the rest of the match.
Worse still, the early abandonment on day four made no sense whatsoever with photographs from reporters on Twitter presenting a completely empty cricket ground bathed in sunlight.
At least there had actually been some play on that fourth day as Pakistan finally completed their first innings with wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan scoring 72 out of a total of 236.
However, the overhead cloud and humid conditions were like something out of a dream for bowlers and a nightmare for the batsmen.
Opener Rory Burns, who struggled across the summer, was dismissed for an entirely forgivable duck in the first over of the England reply - and only four more overs followed before the rain returned.
The weather cleared up towards the end of the afternoon but there appeared to be little desire to get the game restarted - and the delay continued beyond lunch on the fifth day.
At that point, there was a certain sense of wonderment as to why the players bothered to come out play at all for the short period in which they eventually did. The match had, long before that point, become utterly pointless.
For the record, there were 45.4 overs on day one, 40.2 overs on day two, a complete washout on day three, 10.2 overs on day four, and 38.1 overs on day five.
Altogether, the total of 134.3 overs corresponds to just under one-and-a-half days worth of play - and, in worse news still, the forecast for the third Test was not looking overly clever either.
Thankfully, there was a full day of play on the first day - and it featured the first half of a partnership between Crawley (267) and Buttler (152) which, at 359 runs, ended up becoming an all-time England record for the fifth wicket.
Oddly, despite the poor forecast for the second half of the match, England continued to bat even once both centurions were out, before belatedly declaring on the fall of Broad's wicket with the score on 583-8.
Under-pressure Pakistan captain Azhar Ali responded to his critics in excellent manner with 141 not out - but it still was not enough to prevent his team from falling short of the follow on target as Anderson picked up 5-56 to move his career total onto 598.
The Lancashire bowler probably should have made it to 600 quicker than he did but two dropped catches in the slip cordon in the same over by Burns and Sibley left him fuming.
Anderson's mood became worse again in his next over when Broad dropped an absolute dolly at mid-on, although he did immediately make amends with a superb, instinctive throw to run out Abbas with a direct hit.
To the great relief of everyone, Sibley took the next chance to come from Anderson's bowling - with Naseem Shah out for a duck - and Pakistan were all out for 273.
England duly enforced the follow on as gloomy skies enveloped the Ageas Bowl - far darker than those which had caused the abandonment of play in the second Test.
Perhaps, the umpires were overcompensating for their timidity in the previous week - and spinner Bess certainly thought this was the case.
The poor conditions will also likely provide some explanation for the dropped catches, especially considering the cherry-red colour of the new ball.
Remarkably, though, Anderson suffered a fourth drop off his bowling at the start of the fourth day as Buttler - who was otherwise in impeccable form with the gloves - put down a simple chance.
Anderson later took the field out of the equation altogether by trapping Abid Ali lbw for wicket number 599 - but he was made to wait overnight again for his landmark moment.
It eventually came in the final session of an otherwise unremarkable fifth day in another match which was rapidly heading towards a draw.
Skipper Azhar became the famous victim of the Burnley Express, caught at slip by the opposing captain Root off a ball which found a bit of extra bounce.
Sadly, of course, there was no crowd to see this historical achievement in the flesh due to coronavirus - but, even at the age of 38, Anderson shows no sign of stopping or, indeed, of decline.
Looking ahead, the England Test team have a fascinating 18 months in front of them with tours in the notoriously difficult sub-continent region of Sri Lanka and India at the start of 2021.
Next summer, India are scheduled to play a return series of five Tests in England before the next Ashes series, away in Australia, follows at the end of next year.
For now, England remain a promising team - Sibley, Crawley and Pope have contributed to a more settled batting line-up alongside Root and Stokes, and one which has shown it can perform under pressure.
Burns, despite scoring just 20 runs in his last four innings, retains some credit from earlier successes - and, in any case, his lack of runs against Pakistan was offset by the welcome return to form with the bat by Buttler in red-ball cricket.
In the bowling ranks, there is healthy competition for places with Woakes the most impressive outside of Anderson and Broad, leaving Jofra Archer, Mark Wood and Sam Curran all battling it out for just a single place.
Young Bess continues to show some good signs but, at 22, there is still much for him to learn and better sides might expose his inexperience.
In general against the stronger sides, England cannot afford to start as slowly as they have been, and they desperately need to improve their catching which remains mediocre.
Simply put, India and Australia - the two best sides in the world - will not allow England to wiggle off the hook especially on their own patch.
Root's side are already now playing catch-up in the World Test Championship following the defeat to the West Indies and the draws against Pakistan, having now also played a series more than Australia.
Nevertheless, Australia and India are due to play each other before the end of this godforsaken year and then, as mentioned, England play the Indians twice in 2021.
The chance remains for England to barge their way into the top two and the one-off Test Championship match at Lord's - but can they step it up when it matters in a massive 2021 for the team?
You never know - if England can pull it off and win the Ashes back Down Under, Anderson might finally be able to retire in the satisfaction that he can achieve nothing more.
WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP ▪️ ENGLAND WON THE SERIES 2-1
WISDEN TROPHY
WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP ▪️ ENGLAND WON THE SERIES 2-1
WISDEN TROPHY
| 08-12 Jul | (1) West Indies 318 & 200-6 beat England 204 & 313 by four wickets | Southampton |
| 16-20 Jul | (2) England 469-9d & 129-3d beat West Indies 287 & 198 by 113 runs | Old Trafford |
| 24-28 Jul | (3) England 369 & 226-2d beat West Indies 197 & 129 by 269 runs | Old Trafford |
WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP ▪️ ENGLAND WON THE SERIES 1-0
| 05-08 Aug | (1) England 219 & 277-7 beat Pakistan 326 & 169 by three wickets | Old Trafford |
| 13-17 Aug | (2) England 110-4 drew with Pakistan 236 | Southampton |
| 21-25 Aug | (3) Pakistan 273 & 187-4 drew with England 583-8d | Southampton |
ICC WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP ▪️ LATEST STANDINGS
| Pos | Series Won | Tests Won | Tests Drawn | Tests Lost | Points | Runs Per Wicket | Remain | |
| (1) | INDIA | 3 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 360 | 2.011 | 240 |
| (2) | AUSTRALIA | 2 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 296 | 1.604 | 360 |
| (3) | ENGLAND | 3 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 292 | 1.223 | 240 |
| (4) | NEW ZEALAND | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 180 | 0.883 | 360 |
| (5) | PAKISTAN | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 166 | 0.853 | 300 |
| (6) | SRI LANKA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 80 | 0.589 | 480 |
| (7) | WEST INDIES | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 40 | 0.527 | 480 |
| (8) | SOUTH AFRICA | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 24 | 0.521 | 480 |
| (9) | BANGLADESH | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.351 | 540 |
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